Of all the Resident Evil heroes, Leon S. Kennedy is probably the most loved. He began his journey into the dark world of survival horror in 1998’s Resident Evil 2, in which he was a rookie cop experiencing the worst possible first night on the job.
But his evening battling biological monstrosities hardened him and by the time of the smash-hit Resident Evil 4 he was a roundhouse-kickin’, one-liner spoutin’, Ganados-blastin’ badass. That would continue through his appearance in Resident Evil 6, with the younger version of him also getting some love in the awesome Resident Evil 2 Remake. All of which means all eyes were on Avan Jogia as he stepped into the role in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
Now he’s commented on what it was like to shoot the movie in an interview with Comicbook.com:
“You know, it’s funny, ’cause we shot it in sort of a similar order, like we shot the beginning parts of the film at the beginning of the production. So I was like not in the Leon outfit, I was just dressed as like a cop and doing scenes, that I was like, is this, are we doing it?
Like I was, you know, I wasn’t sure maybe the first, like as I am on almost every project I’ve ever been on, the first three days or four days, I was just like, I don’t know, you know, if I’m in it yet or I don’t, you know, I’m not there yet, as far as like my experience with it, the movie was going great, just my experience with it,”
But once the monsters appeared it didn’t take him long to get in the swing of things:
“And then, you know, day four hit and I got the cut-off gloves and I got the armor on and now he’s got a gun, he’s got it out and pointing it at zombies, he’s got the flashlight, he’s got the Leon pose and I was like, oh yeah, okay. Now we’re cooking with gas, you know, I felt like that’s when it sort of clicked for me.”
Jogia has picked up praise from fans for his Leon and though the movie itself isn’t picking up amazing reviews, most agree that it’s a love letter to Capcom’s video game classics. Plus, with the credits scene teasing interesting developments down the line, I’m hopeful that a sequel will be put into production sooner rather than later.
Exactly where that’ll go is anyone’s guess, though I’d be hyped for a live-action adaption of Resident Evil 4 where Jogia can really show us what he can do as Leon.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is now in theaters.
